Introduction to Torridon and chasing an inversion

[skullhead]

I had been eyeing up Torridon for a while since getting sight of the stunning hills there when doing some of the munros near Ullapool the previous year. I thought the trip deserved perfect weather so I would wait until this was available and take a late notice day off work. The plan was to get sunrise from a good height and hopefully an inversion. It is difficult planning for a fine weather day let alone inversion conditions. I have been lucky enough to catch a fair few inversions which I think is down to my willingness to set off very early. We would see!

I had been checking the weather forecast all week and it had been warm and sunny for most of the preceding week. Tantalisingly mist was forecast around the target day when I planned to go and this stayed pretty constant throughout the week. I set off Glasgow around 10pm the plan being to get there around 3am which would give around an hour to get to a decent height for the show - or so I hoped.

It was a fairly uneventful drive up the A9 towards Inverness before turning off to head for DIngwall. It didn't really get fully dark at any point. By the time I approached the single track road there was a warm fuzziness to the air although not much mist around which was disappointing. A strange thing to be searching for!

The view was breathtaking as I approached upper Loch Torridon - magical stuff. I noticed some low clouds as I began the pull up towards the car park. When I arrived there were two other cars there. Gear on and I left the car a little later than planned (3:20am) and straigt for it. The midgies were out early so the headnet was on sharpish. There was a calmness as I bounded up the large boulders on the well constructed path - stopping here and there to take snaps of the new day emerging. I felt justified in my early start already.

There were no difficulties as I made my way to the summit of Tom na Gruagaich. As I took my final steps it was one of those moments that you knew you were just about to be confronted with something spectacular. From this point what lay ahead was revealed the Horns of Alligin in all their glory basking in the early morning sunrise. I felt privilged to be in such a magical place at the right time. I took more photos and videos than I probably have ever done before.

I then made my way down a pretty runnable slope toward the next targer Sgurr Mor. I wondered if anyone else would be lucky enough to see what I had seen. As I approached the summit again with no particular difficulties I could make out a figure. There was a young lady who had the same idea as me and had driven across from Inverness in the early evening the night before and caught the sunset and now the sunrise. She had a serious camera set up and I am sure would have captured some pretty special shots.

I looked on towards the Horns and the young lady said she wondered if it would be manageable carrying her tent (I think she had done them before). At this point I thought if it's manageable with a tent then surely I can do it without one!

The clouds had started to bubble up nicely to create quite a dramatic effect against the steep sided cliffs falling away to the floor of the glen. The first horn was fairly straightforward and there was a clear enough route to follow. The bypass path looked a lot more frightening. For some reason I feel more secure with a drop to my left hand side and this was to the right hand side so forget it! Once atop the horn the view back to the way I had just come was breathtaking. The route down the horn on to the second horn was nice and straightforward and I didn't feel the need to downclimb facing inwards at any point.

Again there were no diffculties on to horns two and three. There is definitely a feeling of exposure and if you lose your grip the fall is probably significant enough to be the end of you but one step at a time and concentrating on my breathing helped me stay calm and focussed.

Once down from the third horn the path is quite steep and I took a few final looks back before I fell back into the mist and such a contrast with up above! There is a good pitched path all the way back to the car park which was a nice easy run out.

By the time I got back to the car it was only around 8am! I thought I would follow the weather. I had never been up Cairngorm in fine weather so decided to give this a go on the way back. I was rewarded with stunnning views across the plateau. A fine end to a great day and all before midday! I was back home by 3:30pm to reflect on a magical day. Well worth missing out on a night of sleep.

[litljortindan]

Doesn't get better than that.

[Mal Grey]

Oh, wow, those conditions. Thanks for sharing with us, without me having to get up at silly o'clock and drive there!

Can't be many folk who do that combination of 3 Munros in one day!

[Verylatestarter]

What a wonderful reward for such a great effort.
My favorite hill in my favorite area.

Thanks for posting.

John